Last week we profiled several regular Sandbar customers who also happened to be members of the graduating class of 2013.

You may or may not know that three of our own bartenders also graduated last weekend: Andrew, Tyler and Jordan.

We can't ever get staff to answer our questions, so we didn't even try this time. Hope you're not expecting a profile of any kind.

Andrew and Tyler both graduated with their MBA's from the KU School of Business. They've both spent the last two years working on their degrees, while also tending bar, working for KU Athletics, getting engaged (Andrew) and getting married (Tyler).

Here's a pic of them together just before they walked down the Hill last Sunday:

And Jordan graduated with her undergraduate degree in business. She's off to St. Louis for a new adventure-- one that will include a familiar face to some of you. The Sandbar crew is like a big happy family, and Dave and Blair were happy to hook Jordan up with Will, who lives in St. Louis and manages a bar. So at least she'll know someone in the big city!

Here's a picture of Jordan from graduation (stolen from her Facebook page, hope that's okay!):

Congratulations, graduates!

(And don't worry. Andrew and Tyler aren't going anywhere; you'll still see them behind the bar, although maybe not as much.)

I must confess, I was packing our closet up as we get ready to move and made a pile of John's clothes that *might* be ready to go to t-shirt heaven. His frayed and paint-splashed Sandbar tee ("I was PAINTING the sandbar!") might've been in the mix... because seriously, in its current state, it's probably not street legal. When he saw it in the purgatory pile, you would've thought he was ready to divorce me. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!?!? GET THAT OUT OF THERE! .... Whoops. Guess I won't be making wardrobe suggestions anymore!

Sandbar shirts are important wardrobe pieces! And often, they are sentimental souvenirs of a previous life.

I was amused with the picture of the shirt Natalie sent, mostly because the shirt isn't in nearly as bad of shape as I expected.

See those little paint spots on the front? Heck, Dave wears shirts worse than this to work sometimes!

However...we can certainly appreciate the idea that someone has too many T-shirts for their closet. Coming soon, a little contest called "how many Sandbar shirts does Dave have." Kind of like guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar.

One commenter noted that there are no bikes in the above picture; so it may have just been Beer Wednesday.

A number of Sandbar friends participate in this group. Former bartender Carrie; man on the street and former bartender Pat and his fiancee' Andrea; art director and sometime-bartender Justin and his lovely wife Michelle; Randy, Thom, Lisa and many others.

The group rides different routes around Lawrence, and sometimes it's a BYOB event while other times they end up at a local watering hole. Or start there.

Picture from the BBW Facebook page.

We love the creative alliteration they added to our Jimmy Buffett collage.

BBW'ers, come back soon! And next time, harass Dave into going with you.

Our fearless founder Peach's niece has been nominated for some awards, and you can help her win!

Katlyn Conroy (if you're a regular, you probably also know her dad Patrick- he hangs out here a lot!) has been nominated for Best Female Singer/Songwriter in the Pitch annual music awards. Her band, Cowboy Indian Bear, has also been nominated in the rock category.

Katlyn has worked really hard this year touring, writing and recording. Let's help her add another accomplishment to the list! You may remember that Katlyn has played at our block party before (and we hope she'll do so again).

Click here to vote. Fair warning: there's a quick registration required, but it's really easy and doesn't take very much time at all. It's really easy to vote, too.

Thanks, friends! We appreciate your help in supporting part of our Sandbar family!

Friday was 11.11.11. Dave and friends thought this was funny and a reason to have eleven drinks. No, they weren't going to do eleven shots at 11 p.m. or anything crazy like that, but they decided to finish off eleven drinks by 11:11 p.m.

They started early. Like 5 p.m. early. And at least a couple of those "drinks" were Dirty Banana shots which may or may not really count.

The last drink of the night, though, made up for it. They finished off with a "Bear Fight," which apparently is a car bomb followed by a Jager bomb. Not one of Dave's new favorites, by the way.

Last night, the Bear Fights made a reappearance. Bartender Tegan was wise (or at least wiser than the guys) and made hers a Cub Fight instead.

Last weekend's Halfway to St. Patrick's Day street festival had an unexpected guest: former Sandbartender Josh!

Josh worked at the bar back in the 90's. He was also Dave's roommate for a couple years. And, Josh is the one who initially set up the Sandbar's website and webcam, long before many businesses in town were using the internet for anything. We may have had one of the first webcams in town, according to this 2002 LJworld.com article.

Josh was a groomsman in Dave's wedding, and now he's living in Wisconsin. We haven't seen him much since he moved away, but he was back in Kansas for a wedding and stopped by to say hi on Saturday.

One of our former employees, Dean, passed away this week. Even though we haven't seen him in several years, Dean remained near and dear to our hearts.

Dean started working here on Sept. 2, 2000. We don't always remember the exact date someone starts working, but this one was significant: it was the day manager Dave got married. Most of the staff was attending the wedding, and Dave needed someone to work.

Dean had become a regular at the bar, drinking Miller Lite and wearing loud Hawaiian shirts. And, he was from Florida. We couldn't have picked a better hire for a tropical beach bar! So, Dean's first shift was on a Saturday night, which was probably a normal Saturday until the wedding party descended after midnight and then left the new guy to figure out how to close the bar.

Dean was a trooper, though, and he figured it out. He was going to school at KU, working on graduate degrees in the music department. He loved the Florida Gators and made sure everyone knew it. Dean was a loyal employee and always willing to work, and everyone loved him.

Dean was one of the first people to experience the Sandbar ghost. Our first documented evidence of the ghost is from the night after St. Patrick's Day, 2003, and Dean was there to witness it.

He eventually finished his degrees and left Lawrence for Indiana. He was back in town in November, 2007, and Dave was thrilled to see him.

Then, he came back a few months later in March, 2008, and several of us were able to enjoy an evening of sushi and drinking with him. We'll always remember the fun we had that night.

The picture below was taken when Dean was here in November, 2007.

We'll miss you, Dean, and raise our Miller Lites in your honor.

We're hoping to plan a memorial at the Sandbar sometime soon, so Dean's friends and former customers can come together and share memories. You can also leave your memories of him in the comments.

Visit the Facebook memorial page for Dean to see lots of pictures and read many great memories that people have of Dean.